Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest

In English: The rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap.

Since there are so many sayings about the animals and their characteristics, I thought it would be good to include this saying which emphasizes not just the characteristics of an animal, but also the animal's environment. The rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap - but beyond that, he is just a rooster, nothing more. So, while on his own dungheap, the rooster can crow as loudly as he likes, but if you take him away from his precious dungheap, he won't have much to crow about!

The irony, of course, is that what is to the rooster a mighty kingdom is, in our estimation, a pile of dung, a sterquilinium in Latin (also spelled sterculinium and stercilinium), from the noun stercus, meaning "dung, manure." You can get a sense of importance of dung in the Roman vocabulary from the many compounds of this word: such as the verb stercoro, the noun stercoratio, and the adjectives stercorarius and stercorosus. When something was stercorosus, "full of manure," this could actually be a good thing - a field that was well manured was a fine thing, after all! Still, it's not somewhere you would probably want to live - even though that is the kind of place where the rooster of today's proverb proudly makes his home.

The saying is used famously by Seneca in his satire on the death of the Emperor Claudius, the Apocolocyntosis. When Claudius finds himself facing the mighty hero Hercules, he realizes that he is in big trouble:

Claudius ut vidit virum valentem, oblitus nugarum intellexit neminem Romae sibi parem fuisse, illic non habere se idem gratiae: gallum in suo sterquilino plurimum posse.

When Claudius saw the mighty hero, he forgot the silly words [he had just spoken] and realized that while no man had been a match for him at Rome, here in this place, he did not have the same influence: the rooster can do plenty in his own dungheap.

Mocking the Emperor Claudius as nothing more than a crowing rooster lately of the dungheap known as Rome fits in perfectly with Seneca's sharp and even vicious satirical agenda in this amazing work of literature. Intrigued? You can find the full text in Latin online, and in English, too!

Meanwhile, hoping that you are happily crowing in whatever environment you may find yourself in, here is today's proverb read out loud:

2157. Gallus in sterquilinio suo plurimum potest.

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Pardus maculas non deponit

In English: The leopard does not set aside his spots.

Yesterday's saying warned us that even when the wolf changes his appearance, he is still a wolf inside (lupus pilum mutat, non mentem). Today's saying tackles the same dilemma from a different angle: Pardus maculas non deponit, which is to say that a leopard is always going to be a leopard, no matter what he claims or promises or swears to the contrary. So, if you are tempted to think that a leopard can change his spots, think otherwise! This is not a situation you are likely to encounter in a literal sense, but you might encounter it metaphorically, like when an alcoholic swears to you that he is going to get sober, or when a womanizer swears he will be faithful and true. You can be optimistic and hope for the best, or you can accept the more cynical advice of this proverb, which tells you not to expect any change.

This is the metaphorical sense of the saying as it appears in the text of the Bible, in the Book of Jeremiah 13: Si mutare potest Aethiops pellem suam, aut pardus varietates suas, et vos poteritis benefacere, cum didiceritis malum, "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, you also will be able to do good, even though you have learned to do evil." Jeremiah is taunting his audience, of course - just as no one expects the Ethiopian to change the color of his skin or the leopard to change the color of its spots, so too the people who have learned to do evil will not begin to do good.

You might notice the different word used for the leopard's spots: maculas, in today's saying, and varietates in the Bible passage. This seems to be a case where the Latin text of the Bible, with its varietates, is following the Septuagint rather closely, ποικίλματα. The word macula, however, which means "spot" or "stain," is much better suited for the metaphorical implications of the saying, that the leopard's spots are a sign of something dangerous or bad, something that probably should be changed, even if the leopard himself is not going to do so. The macula that you see there is just what Mary was born without, thanks to the Im-maculate Conception, the conception that allowed her to be born without the stain of original sin. For a less lofty use of Latin macula, consider the "macchiato" you can buy at Starbucks: the Italian macchiato is from the Latin maculatum, spotted - just as the "macchiato" traditionally comes with a dollop or spot of milk.

So, hoping you have had yourself at least one good cup of coffee today, maculated or otherwise, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1661. Pardus maculas non deponit.

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Liber inops servo divite felicior

In English: A free man without wealth is happier than a rich servant.

I thought this saying about the dangerous attractions of wealth would make a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb about the difference between money and true wealth: Neminem pecunia divitem fecit, "Money has never made anyone wealthy." Today's saying expresses the same paradoxical idea in slightly different terms: wealth, if it comes at the price of enslavement, is no wealth at all, and the only true wealth is freedom. Therefore, the man who is free, albeit poor, is more fortunate than a servant or a slave who is wealthy.

This is a sentiment that is near and dear to my heart, since many years ago I decided it was much better to abandon the career path I was on and to choose instead a greater freedom. The income I've ended up with is lower, indeed, but the freedom is priceless, and looking back on the choice now almost ten years later, I would not change a thing!

This saying is traditionally associated with one of the fables of Phaedrus, the story of the dog and the wolf. Although the words themselves are not part of the poem itself, they have often been adopted as a kind of "epigram" for the fable, as you can see in this edition of Phaedrus published in 1738 and in this schoolboys' edition of Phaedrus from 1808, in which there are numbers to the side of each line telling the reader in which order to construe the Latin in order to come up with a word order more like that of English!

As for the fable of the wolf and the dog, it is one of my favorites, and was the first Aesop's fable I created at the Tar Heel Reader site. So, you can read an illustrated version of the fable at Tar Heel (including a bilingual Latin-English version); here is the text of the fable as I told it there:

Ecce Lupus! Ecce silva! Lupus domum habet in silva. Lupus in silva cibum quaerit. Non multum cibum invenit. Lupus macer est. Quam macer Lupus est!
Ecce Canis! Canis domum habet in urbe. Canis Domino servit. Dominus cibum Cani dat. Dominus multum cibum Cani dat. Canis pinguis est. Quam pinguis Canis est!
Canis Lupo occurrit:
CANIS: Salve, amice!
LUPUS: Salve, amice! Miratus sum: quam pinguis es tu! Cibum semper quaero, sed saepe non invenio. Unde tantum cibum habes tu?
CANIS: Dominus meus cibum mihi dat. Cibum mihi dat de mensa sua!
LUPUS: Sed video in collo tuo cicatrices. Unde cicatrices in collo habes?
CANIS: Mi amice, hoc nihil est. Interdum me alligant catena. Catena cicatrices mihi in collo facit.
LUPUS: Quam miser es tu, Canis! Cibum habes. Sed cibus servitutis est. Vale, mi amice! Volo vivere in libertate, non in servitute.

As you can see, I've tried to make the story as simple as possible - in my opinion, this is a lesson that someone is never too young to learn!

So, hoping you are making the best use of your own freedom at this moment, here is today's proverb read out loud:

697. Liber inops servo divite felicior.

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Neminem pecunia divitem fecit

In English: Money has never made anyone wealthy.

After yesterday's proverb about straw and gold, I thought these wise words about wealth and money would make a good follow-up. The words are found in one of Seneca's letters to Lucilius (CXIX), and there is much to be learned from Seneca's other observations in this same letter.

Seneca begins by insisting that the basic laws of nature are enough and that nature herself teaches us that a simple life is good enough: Esurio: edendum est; utrum hic panis sit plebeius an siligineus ad naturam nihil pertinet - illa ventrem non delectari vult sed impleri, "I hunger: something must be eaten; whether it coarse bread or fancy white bread makes no difference to nature - she does not want for the stomach to be delighted but for it to be filled." (That is a very nice echo of the donkey who prefers straw and gold.)

In short, if you are hungry, you eat whatever will fill your stomach: Nihil contemnit esuriens, "A hungry man scorns nothing."

Seneca then puts this question to Lucilius in general terms: Utrum mavis habere multum an satis?, "Would you prefer to have much, or to have enough?" Seneca then proceeds to show that the only logical response is to wish for satis. To wish for much is inevitably to wish for more, and so on in an endless cycle of dis-satis-faction: Qui multum habet plus cupit, quod est argumentum nondum illum satis habere; qui satis habet consecutus est quod numquam diviti contigit, finem, "He who has much desires more, which is a sign that he does not have enough yet; he who has enough has attained something that never happens to the rich man: the end." That is, someone who has enough has reached the end of wanting, while the man with much, who thinks it is not enough, keeps endlessly wanting more and more.

Seneca then invokes Alexander the Great as the emblem of the unnatural man, the one who keeps wanting and wanting without an end in sight. Alexander could never reach the limits of his quest, while nature knows how to stay within her boundaries: Quod naturae satis est homini non est, "What is enough for nature is not enough for man." The unnatural power of money then brings Seneca around to our saying for today: Neminem pecunia divitem fecit, immo contra nulli non maiorem sui cupidinem incussit, "Money has never made anyone wealthy; rather, on the contrary, money never instills other than a greater craving for itself."

If you'd like to read more (the letter is full of all kinds of wise and witty observations about getting and having), you can find the whole epistle online both in Latin and in English, too!

Meanwhile, hoping you are truly satis-fied with what you have already in your life, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3315. Neminem pecunia divitem fecit.

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Asinus stramen mavult quam aurum

In English: A donkey prefers straw to gold.

I thought I would carry on with the theme of donkeys as in the past several days, with this fascinating little proverb about how the donkey literally wants straw more than he wants (mavult = magis vult) gold. There are actually two quite different ways to interpret this saying. So, before you read any farther, asks yourself what you think is the meaning of such a saying: A donkey prefers straw to gold.

One way to take the saying is to assume that it is about the donkey's foolishness. The idea, then, is that the donkey is so foolish that he prefers straw, which is of little value, to gold, which is of great value. The poor donkey doesn't recognize the value of the gold, however, because of his limited experience and even more limited intelligence. The donkey knows that he can eat the straw which, in its immediacy, is all that matters to him. The fact that the gold is precious and can be used for many purposes, escapes his comprehension entirely.

Yet it also must be admitted than you cannot eat gold. So, the donkey can be looked upon as a positive and practical hero, who knows that having something to eat is of primary importance. Getting something to eat, even simple fare such as straw, must come first. Gold implies luxury and adornment and extravagance, all of which are things you don't need. You need to eat, so be satisfied with the straw that you have, and don't go wasting your time and effort on something like gold, literally understood as inedible metal, or gold as a symbol of wealth, and especially wealth in excess.

Personally, I like the interpretation that takes the side of the donkey and praises him for wisely rejecting riches and preferring a solid meal instead. For a fable that illustrates the same idea unambiguously - although with mules instead of donkeys - look at the different fates of the two animals, one of whom carries a load of humble barley, while the other carries a load of money (Phaedrus):

Muli gravati sarcinis ibant duo:
unus ferebat fiscos cum pecunia,
alter tumentis multo saccos hordeo.
ille onere dives celsa cervice eminens,
clarumque collo iactans tintinabulum;
comes quieto sequitur et placido gradu.
subito latrones ex insidiis advolant,
interque caedem ferro ditem sauciant:
diripiunt nummos, neglegunt vile hordeum.
spoliatus igitur casus cum fleret suos,
"Equidem" inquit alter "me contemptum gaudeo;
nam nil amisi, nec sum laesus vulnere".
Hoc argumento tuta est hominum tenuitas,
magnae periclo sunt opes obnoxiae.

For an English translation, here's Christopher Smart's version:

Two laden Mules were on the road-
A charge of money was bestowed
Upon the one, the other bore
Some sacks of barley. He before.
Proud of his freight, begun to swell,
Stretch'd out his neck, and shook his bell
The poor one, with an easy pace,
Came on behind a little space,
When on a sudden, from the wood
A gang of thieves before them stood;
And, while the muleteers engage,
Wound the poor creature in their rage
Eager they seize the golden prize,
But the vile barley-bags despise.
The plunder'd mule was all forlorn,
The other thank'd them for their scorn:
" 'Tis now my turn the head to toss,
Sustaining neither wound nor loss."
The low estate's from peril clear,
But wealthy men have much to fear.

As you can see, the fable comes down strongly on the side of the humble creature content with barley-bags, rather than with a golden prize!

So, hoping that today you are enjoying plenty of whatever you prefer, whether it be straw or gold (or some of both!), here is the proverb read out loud:

2268. Asinus stramen mavult quam aurum.

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In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur

In English: The donkey will die in the skin in which he's born.

I thought this saying about the donkey and his skin would make a good follow-up to the fable yesterday about the donkeys who tried to improve their lot in life by wearing lion skins. That fable illustrated the general idea that suam quisque pellem portat, "each carries his own skin," while today's saying is more specific about the fate of the donkey in particular, who has no hope at all of changing his skin throughout his long life of toil and trouble. As often in the world of fables and proverbs, the donkey stands here for anyone who lives the life of a servant or a slave, working hard at someone else's command, bearing other people's burdens, and being whipped and cudgeled along the way.

As you can see from the rhyming form of the proverb, In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur, the saying is medieval in origin. Unlike the classical Latin authors, who rejected rhyme as a literary device, the medieval authors embraced rhyme whole-heartedly, which is one of the many things that I enjoy about medieval Latin literature. In the case of this saying, the desire to rhyme was so strong that it swept the word for "being born" into the future tense, nascetur, in order to rhyme with morietur, when you probably would have expected a present tense nascitur, or the perfect natus est. In classical Latin poetry, of course, many things happen metri causa, "for the sake of the meter," so we could say here that the verb form has been chosen rhythmi causa, "for the sake of the rhyme." There is also meter at work in this saying as well, since it is a Leonine verse, which features internal rhyme within a dactylic hexameter. This verse can be read as a dactylic hexameter provided you admit the license that lets the syllable before the caesura be taken as long (understandably, if you imagine a true pause at the caesura): In quō nascētur || asinus coriō moriētur.

For a fable about the donkey's skin in which he is born and dies and in which he suffers even after death, consider this sad little fable by Phaedrus:

Qui natus est infelix, non vitam modo
tristem decurrit, verum post obitum quoque
persequitur illum dura fati miseria.
Galli Cybebes circum in quaestus ducere
asinum solebant, baiulantem sarcinas.
Is cum labore et plagis esset mortuus,
detracta pelle sibi fecerunt tympana.
Rogati mox a quodam, delicio suo
quidnam fecissent, hoc locuti sunt modo:
"Putabat se post mortem securum fore:
ecce aliae plagae congeruntur mortuo!"

For an English version, here is one by Christopher Smart:

The luckless wretch that's born to woe
Must all his life affliction know-
And harder still, his cruel fate
Will on his very ashes wait,
Cybele's priests, in quest of bread,
An Ass about the village led,
With things for sale from door to door;
Till work'd and beaten more and more,
At length, when the poor creature died,
They made them drums out of his hide.
Then question'd "how it came to pass
They thus could serve ther darling Ass?"
The answer was, " He thought of peace
In death, and that his toils would cease;
But see his mis'ry knows no bounds,
Still with our blows his back resounds."

The fable tells us that not only will the donkey die in the skin in which he is born, even after death he will no know peace.

So, hoping that the skin in which you find yourself is a more fortunate skin than that of the donkey, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3253. In quo nascetur asinus corio morietur.

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Suam quisque pellem portat

In English: Each carries his own skin.

Following up on yesterday's sayings about staying inside your own skin (in propria pelle quiesce), I thought this would be a good follow-up saying. The idea is basically the same: each person carries his own skin and, by implication, you will get into big trouble if you try to carry someone else's skin instead!

Aesop's fables abound in examples of animals who try to act like some other animal and get into trouble as a result. For a literal example of an animal who gets in trouble by wearing the skin of another animal, the most famous example is surely that of the donkey who wore a lion's skin. There are many variations on this story - so much so that Perry, in his index of the Aesopic fables, grouped the variations under two different numbers: Perry 188 and Perry 358.

My own personal favorite of the many versions of the donkey in the lion's skin is the one by Odo of Cheriton which I find especially charming because it features a mass action by the donkeys! Here you see not just one donkey, but many donkeys who have decided to improve their situation in life by donning the skins of lions:

Asini viderunt quod homines male et dure tractaverunt eos, stimulando, onera imponendo. Viderunt etiam quod timuerunt Leones. Condixerunt ad invicem quod acciperent pelles leoninas et sic homines timerent illos. Fecerunt sic. Asini igitur, induti pellibus leoninis, saltabant, discurrebant. Homines fugerunt, credentes esse Leones. Tandem Asini inceperunt recanare. Homines diligenter auscultaverunt et dixerunt: Vox ista vox Asinorum est; accedamus proprius. Accesserunt tandem; viderunt caudas illorum et pedes et dixerunt: Certe isti sunt Asini, non Leones, et ceperunt Asinos et multum bene verberaverunt.

For a segmented version of the Latin making it easier to read, see the Latin Via Fables blog. Meanwhile, here is an English translation:

The donkeys saw that men treated them harshly and badly, whipping them and putting loads on their backs. In addition, they saw that men were afraid of lions. So they agreed among themselves that they would put on lion skins and then the men would be afraid of them. That is what the donkeys did. Having thus donned the lion skins, the donkeys leaped about and ran here and there. The men fled, thinking they were lions. Finally, the donkeys began to bray. The men listened carefully and said: That sound is the sound of donkeys; let's get closer! Eventually they got close enough to see their tails and their feet and they said: Surely these are donkeys, not lions! And They began to beat the donkeys, and they did beat them very badly indeed.

You have to feel sorry for the poor donkeys: it was a disaster when they wore the skins of the lions, but at the same time, it was no picnic wearing their own skin to begin with.

So, hoping you are not feeling as overburdened as one of the poor donkeys in the fable, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1279. Suam quisque pellem portat.

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The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Edentulus vescentium dentibus invidet

In English: The poor toothless person envies the teeth of the diners.

I thought this proverb about the poor little man without any teeth, edentulus, would make a good follow-up to yesterday's fable about the monkey who didn't have any tail to use to cover its bare behind. Just as the monkey was envious of the fox's long, bushy tail, in this saying, the poor man without any teeth envies the teeth of the people who are eating.

The word edentulus is a real Latin gem, and impossible to render in English. We do have the word "toothless," so that is a start, but the Latin word edentulus is, in addition to meaning "toothless," a diminutive noun, which is generally something impossible to render in English. I've added the word "poor" to the English translation above ("the poor toothless person"), but that is still not quite the same as the magic of the Latin diminutive, which is able to convey that subtle connotation within the very word edentulus itself.

The very term "diminutive" in English misleads us about the wide-ranging expressive power of the diminutive form in Latin. Sometimes, of course, it does refer to something small, in a physical sense of smallness. A corpusculum is a tiny corpus, a "tiny body," which is where we get the English word corpuscle. A musculus is a tiny mus, a "tiny mouse," which is where we get the English word muscle (since a muscle rippling beneath your skin reminded someone of a mouse running!).

Yet the more important uses of the diminutive are metaphorical, rather than simply literal. In a positive sense, the diminutive is a term of endearment. You can see it in the affectionate term for the mother's brother in Latin, the avunculus, which gives us the English word uncle (unlike the Latin word for the father's brother in Latin, the severe and strict uncle: patruus). You can see the diminutives of Latin mel, "honey," melliculum and melculum, used much like we use the word "honey" as a term of affection, but they are all the more endearing in Latin because of the diminutive form. It's not a "little honey" in terms of physical smallness or a small quantity, but instead in the sense of expressing affection.

Yet the diminutive can also be used in a negative sense, indicating something that is small in value, something that is paltry or trifling or deficient in some way. That is the case with the poor edentulus in today's saying: he is not a literally a small person, but metaphorically he is poor and paltry, someone who might deserve our pity although, the in the harshness of the Roman world, could also be someone who merits scorn for his defects.

So, whenever you encounter a Latin diminutive you have to decide just what sense it conveys in its context: does it refer literally to something small, or to something positive and endearing, or to something negative and paltry? If you are going to attempt to render the diminutive Latin word with an English word or phrase, you will need to know just what kind of diminutive you are dealing with to being with!

So, hoping you are happily "toothful" both literally and metaphorically, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3708. Edentulus vescentium dentibus invidet.

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The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat

In English: Every fox praises its own tail.

There are many Latin sayings about self-regard - cuique suum, "to each his own" - and so on, but of course what I like about this particular version of that idea is that it involves the fox and its tail. Not only is this an animal proverb, which of course is something that meets with my approval (being a fan of animal proverbs), but "the fox's tail," in particular, is a wonderful folklore motif. Foxes do have quite lovely, bushy tails, and given that foxes are notable for their fine tails, the tail of the fox appears as a motif in two very funny Aesop's fables: the story of the fox and the monkey, and the story of the fox who lost its tail. The story of the fox that lost its tail you can read elsewhere; what I wanted to share today here is the story of the fox and the monkey, which is not a very well-known fable - but it deserves to be better known, I think! As you will see, the prominent use of the word "butt" in the fable has led to it being cast out of the traditional children's canon of fables, alas.

The fable of the fox and the monkey makes its first appearance in the Phaedrus tradition as the first poem in the so-called Perotti Appendix, although it also appears in the medieval Phaedrus paraphrases, including this medieval rhyming version in Goliardic stanzas (you can read the rhyming lines to the tune of "Yankee Doodle," while the final line of each stanza is a dactylic hexamter):

Turpis quondam Simia Vulpi supplicavit
Pro caudae particula, dicens quod optavit
Nates nudas tegere, quas pudens portavit.
Sed Vulpes misere poscenti cuncta negavit.

Ait Vulpi Simia: Multum praegravaris
Caudae longitudine, dum currens vagaris.
Obsecro particulam mihi largiaris,
Vt velox factus currens citius movearis.

Cui Vulpes: Hoc utinam tanto longaretur,
Vt prae magnitudine vix sublevaretur,
Et iam grossa fieret quod vix portaretur!
Quamvis sic esset, tibi pars hic nulla daretur.

Here's an English translation: Once upon a time, the ugly monkey begged the fox for a tiny bit of the fox's tail, saying that she wanted to cover her bare behind which shamefully was her burden. But the fox completely refused the monkey's wretched request. The monkey said to the fox: "But you are badly weighed down by the length of a tail when you are wandering around on the run. I ask that you give me a tiny part of your tail, so that you would become more speedy, moving more quickly as you run about." The fox replied: "If only my tail could be even longer so that on account of its greatness it could barely be lifted off the ground, and so gigantic that it could scarcely be carried! Even if it were so, no part of it would thus be given to you!"

As you can find in the fable tradition, despite the grammatical gender of the fox as feminine, the fox in our fable here is case as masculine (velox factus), which also happens in some Latin versions of the fox who lost its tail in a trap (where the foxes address each other as fraterculi, brethren). The fable is thus not cast as a swipe at female vanity in particular, but at the vanity that afflicts us all: despite the feminine gender of the fox in Latin, the saying Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat is not just an indictment of the ladies!

So, hoping you are enjoying healthy self-regard today without, however, going to extremes, here is today's proverb read out loud:

1300. Quaelibet vulpes caudam suam laudat.

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Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes

In English: Ulysses was not handsome, but he was good with words.

Since yesterday's proverb was warning us about people to watch out for because of their occasional falsehoods, I figured Odysseus was a great character to look at as a case in point. Odysseus is famous as a teller of fabulous fictions and outright lies, and managed to save his life more than once as a result... thanks to the gullibility of his antagonists.

What this proverb focuses on is that while Odysseus was not good to look (not "shapely," formosus), he was a great talked, facundus, from the same root as the verb for, fari, "to speak" (as in fatum, the thing "spoken" in the sense of divine destiny, and in fama, "oral rumor, report"). Over and over again in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, we see Odysseus put his crafty speaking skills to good use, most famously when he spins his tales for Alcinous after being shipwrecked among the Phaeacians.

In fact, one of the funniest moments that I remember from graduate school is going to a symposium on Homer, and watching a graduate student presenting a paper be simply thunderstruck, completely stupefied and taken aback, by the idea that Odysseus was not telling the truth in the tales he told about the Cyclops and the Sirens and all his other outrageous adventures. Someone in the audience asked a casual question about Odysseus's "lies" at the court of Alcinous, and she had simply never even pondered the possibility that Odysseus was lying, telling tall tales for the benefit of his audience. So, even at a distance of thousands of years, we could see that Homer's Odysseus was still able to cast his spell, making this graduate student believe that insofar as Odysseus was a real character, he had really experienced all those adventures on his way to the court of Alcinous.

As for the Latin here, it comes from Ovid's Ars Amatoria; here is the complete couplet:

Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes,
Et tamen aequoreas torsit amore deas.

Ulysses was not handsome, but he was good with words, and he still set the watery goddesses afire with love.

Ah, those aequoreae deae, like fair Calypso... Odysseus was one of those fellows with a goddess in every port no doubt! So, in honor of those two great wordsmiths Odysseus and Ovid, here is today's proverb read out loud:

2314. Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulixes

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Falsum in uno, falsum in toto

In English: False in one thing, false in the whole thing.

I thought this would be a good saying to follow up on yesterday's saying about faith and falsehood. You can find this saying in various versions. Sometimes, for example, you can find the masculine singular falsus instead of the neuter singular falsum, and instead of the in uno - in tuto contrast, you can also find in uno - in omnibus. In all cases, the basic idea is the same: if something or something is false in one thing, then it (or he) is false in the whole thing (or in every thing). A similar saying is not about what is falsum, but instead someone who is malus, and the question is not of amount, but about time: Semel malus, semper malus, "Once bad, always bad."

Both of these sayings provide good advice, warning you to be on your guard at the least sign of impropriety, it is also what is called a "logical fallacy" (and yes, English "fallacy" is from the same root as the word falsum which is at issue in the proverb - ironic, yes?). The saying asserts that something which is partly false is completely false, and that someone who is bad once is always bad, although of course you know in your own experience that this is not true. Just think of some little white lie that you have told, or when you have acted badly... well, you know that just because you told a white lie, you are still capable of telling the truth, and that if you acted badly once, that does not mean you act badly all the time. Hence the fallacy: something that is partially false is not a vote of endorsement for the whole, but it is not proof (yet) that the whole thing is false, and one misdeed is not a complete indictment of someone's bad character. You can read more about this and related logical fallacies in this Wikipedia article.

Of course, in the world of proverbs, logical rigor is usually not what is at stake. After all, proverbs are not philosophy in the academic sense of the word. Instead, the proverbs are wisdom that comes from the everyday situations of life. Sure, it's not always true that someone who tells one lie is always lying, or that someone who can be bad is always going to be bad... but at the same time, you know you might regret putting your trust in anything or anyone that is even slightly suspicious.

So, hoping you have avoided all falsehoods and all fallacies today, here are the proverbs read out loud:

833. Falsum in uno, falsum in toto.

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44. Semel malus, semper malus.

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Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit

In English: He who is quick to believe often ends up deceived.

In the spirit of the rhyming proverbs of the past couple of days, I thought I would including another rhyming one for today: Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit. Plus, I managed to find a more or less adequate rhyming version in English: "He who is quick to believe often ends up deceived." There's also a variant version in Latin, where this thing does not happen "often" but rather "soon" - Qui leviter credit, deceptus cito recedit, "He who is quick to believe, soon goes away, having been deceived."

In the marvelous wook by Heinrich Bebel, Proverbia Germanica, we can find some variants in the form of couplets. Here's one that says it is the young who are likely to make this mistake, while old men have learned better:

Qui cito crediderit, falletur saepe, levisque
Est cordis: raro fallitur ipse senex.

English: He who soon believes, will often be deceived, and is a mental lightweight: an old man, however, is rarely deceived.

In this variation, the key is to trust only a few - the trouble comes not so much from trusting too quickly but from trusting too many:

Nemo decipitur nisi qui confidit, et ergo
Paucis confidens hic sapienter agit.

English: No one is deceived unless he puts his trust in something, and therefore he acts wisely who puts his trust in few.

This idea of trusting only a few rather than many is also the focus of this couplet:

Nemo decipitur, nisi qui vult fidere multis:
Hinc penitus paucis fidere quisque velit.

English: No one is deceived, unless he is willing to put his trust in many people; henceforth, let each person agree to thoroughly trust only a few people.

This saying takes up the idea of trustly too quickly and combines it with the peril of believing everything:

Nusquam tuta fides; non omnibus omnia credas;
Falletur subito, qui cito crediderit.

English: Trust is never secure; you should not believe everything that everybody says; he who believes quickly will soon be deceived.

This variation warns that even your friends can be the problem:

Qui leviter notis nimium confidit amicis,
Fallitur, et cordis dicitur esse levis.

English: He who is quick to put too much faith in familiar friends gets fooled, and can be said to be a mental light-weight.

As all these versions attest, this is clearly a saying that has had a strong appeal to Latin rhymesters and versifiers over the ages! Meanwhile, if you have never explored Bebel's amazing book, you can browse through it in all its glory here at GoogleBooks, all 600+ pages of it!

So, hoping you have successfully navigated the dilemma of "to believe or not believe?" today, here is the proverb read out loud:

3524. Qui leviter credit, deceptus saepe redit.

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Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora

In English: Work and pray; God will aid you without delay.

After yesterday's rhyming proverb, I thought it would be fun to do another rhyming proverb, especially since for this one, it's easy to make it rhyme in English, too! Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora, "Work and pray; God will aid you without delay."

Now, to be fair to people who worry about Latin vowel length, the rhyme is not exact, because mora has a short "o," and the "o" in labōra is long. In the Middle Ages, however, the distinctions between long and short vowels were not observed as they were in ancient Rome - so the rhymes of medieval Latin are not constrained by classical vowel length.

The rhyming phrase Ora et labora, "Pray and work," is also well-known on its own, and is especially associated with the monastic rule of Saint Benedict although it does not actually appear in the text of the rule. Interestingly, however, it appears that the motto only became associated with the Order of Saint Benedict in the 19th century, based on a book by Maurus Wolter.

If you're curious about the rule of Saint Benedict, you can find the text online at the Latin Library: Regula S. P. N. Benedicti (where S.P.N. stands for Sanctissimi Patris Nostri). Even if the saying ora et labora is not found here in the rule, the sentiments expressed are nevertheless very similar indeed, as in this declaration: Otiositas inimica est animae, et ideo certis temporibus occupari debent fratres in labore manuum, certis iterum horis in lectione divina, "Being unoccupied is a danger to the soul, and therefore at some times the brethren should be occupied in manual labor, while at other times in reading of scripture." Given the stress placed here on reading the scriptures, it is not surprising to find, in addition to the motto Ora et Labora, this variant: Ora et Labora et Lege, "Pray and Work and Read." Indeed, Pope Benedict XVI himself invoked this motto in a recent homily.

So, hoping you have have managed to escape the perils of otiositas today, here is the proverb read out loud:

2356. Ora et labora, deus adest sine mora.

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Sine labore non erit panis in ore

In English: Without work there will be no bread in your mouth.

I thought this proverb about man's life of labor would be a good follow-up to yesterday's saying from Job about how man is born to a life of labor, ad laborem. Today's saying explains that work is required if you want to have bread to eat and, even better, the saying rhymes: Sine labore non erit panis in ore.

Of course, there are other proverbs about how nothing can be accomplished sine labore - Nihil sine labore, "Nothing without labor," Nil sine labore paratur, "Nothing is produced without labor," Nulla res magna sine labore venit, "No great thing happens without labor" - but none of those others have the charm of the rhyme to sweeten the sad truth of the saying.

An Aesop's fable that illustrates the truth of this saying is the famous story of the ant and the grasshopper, and I used this saying as a moral for my Tar Heel version of that fable. You can see the illustrations at Tar Heel; meanwhile, here is the text of the fable as I told it in Latin:

Ecce Formica! Formica negotiosa est, et prudens. In aestate, Formica laborat, colligens frumentum. Collectum frumentum trahit in cavernam suam. Cibum reponit in aestate ut comedat in hieme.
Ecce Cicada! Cicada otiosa est, et imprudens. In aestate, Cicada cantat et non laborat.
Sed mox tempus hiemis advenit cum magno frigore. Formica in caverna sua manet, comedens cibum suum. Sed Cicada cibum non habet.
Auxilium quaerens, Cicada venit ad Formicae ianuam. Famelica Cicada clamat: "O Formica, te imploro da mihi cibum! Copiam habes tu, et ego nihil. Fame iam moritura sum!"
Sed Formica Cicadam interrogat: "Ego tota aestate laborabam colligens frumentum. Dum ego sic laborabam, quid agebas tu?"
Cicada respondet: "Per flores errabam et per gramina. Carmina cantabam omnibus, gratis. Hoc erat mihi opus aestivum."
Formica ridet et ianuam claudit: "Si aestate cantabas hieme nunc salta!" Fabula docet: Sine labore non erit panis in ore.

For an English translation, check out the bilingual version at Tar Heel.

Meanwhile, hoping your bread today has been sweet and your labors not too harsh, here is the proverb read out loud:

2646. Sine labore non erit panis in ore

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Homo ad laborem natus est et avis ad volatum

In English: A man is born to work and a bird to fly.

Since the proverbs for the past few days have been about birds where the birds are metaphors for different kinds of people, I thought it would be good to move on to this saying where the fundamental difference between men and birds is highlighted: men labor by tilling the ground down here, while birds fly high up in the sky above.

The saying is Biblical, and comes from the Book of Job, which reads as following in the Vulgate: Homo nascitur ad laborem, et avis ad volatum. Yet when you look at the King James version, you find something quite different: "Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." The Septugaint gives yet another rendering: ἀλλὰ ἄνθρωπος γεννᾶται κόπῳ νεοσσοὶ δὲ γυπὸς τὰ ὑψηλὰ πέτονται, "but man is born for trouble, and the chicks of the vulture seek the heights."

So, this little verse turns out to be a great example of the fascinating example of the questions and dilemmas that are part of the Biblical text tradition. The Hebrew Hebrew בְנֵי־רֶשֶׁף (bine reshef, “sons of the flame”), which is what accounts for the King James reading "sparks." Yet some Biblical scholars think that, from context, the verse must refer to some kind of bird, "sons of lightning," which could means eagles, given that the eagle was associated with the lightning in many ancient traditions. The eagle interpretation helps to explain the Septuagint rendering, since the eagle and the vulture were sometimes closely associated (even though nowadays we tend to have an entirely negative view of the vulture, based solely on the fact that it is a scavenger). The Latin takes a more neutral approach, adopting the interpretation that "sons of the flame" must mean some kind of bird, but it does not specify what kind of bird, rendering the phrase simply as avis, "bird."

As the variety of interpretations here in Greek, Latin and English show already, there is no easy answer to the problem posed by this passage! Still other solutions have been proposed, including the idea that "sons of the flame" might refer to angels, or - as the Job Targum suggests - the "sons of the flame" could refer to demons.

Luckily for us, though, the Vulgate reading makes a wonderful little saying which took on a life of its own in Latin. You can also find this Latin saying in other European languages, as in Italian, l'uomo fu creator per lavorare come l'uccello per volare, or Spanish el hombre ha sido creado para trabajar, como el pájaro para volar, or German der Mensch ist zur Arbeit, wie der Vogel zum Fliegen gemacht. So, even if the Hebrew itself is not clear, the Latin Vulgate - inspired by that bit of Hebrew - has given Europe a wonderful and well-known saying about man's lot in this world.

So, hoping your life is enjoying some flights of fancy in addition to your allotted labors, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3527. Homo ad laborem natus est et avis ad volatum

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Ne ad pugnam vocet aquilam luscinia

In English: The nightingale should not challenge the eagle to a fight.

I figured after yesterday's proverb about hawk and the related story of the hawk and the nightingale, it would make sense to follow that up with this saying about the nightingale and the eagle. Although there is not an actual fable about a nightingale who challenged an eagle to a fight, the results are easy enough to imagine: the nightingale should not challenge the eagle to a fight, because the nightingale is sure to lose.

There's a similar saying about a nanny-goat and a lion: Ne capra contra leonem pugnet, "The nanny-goat should not go fight against the lion," or, in a more abbreviated Latin form, Ne capra contra leonem, where you can imagine any verb you like: whatever it is that a goat thinks it wants to do against lion, a goat should not do that!

Much of the proverb and fable tradition is based on the stereotypical oppositions between the animals. In today's proverb, for example, the nightingale is opposed to the eagle because the eagle is a big, war-like, predatory bird, while the nightingale is a small, sweet, good-tempered bird. You can find other birds playing this role in relation to the eagle, too, especially the quintessentially peaceful dove, as in the saying, Aquila non parit columbam, "An eagle doesn't give birth to a dove."

Yet in addition to being an opposite to the eagle, the nightingale can also be set in opposition to some other kind of bird. For example, consider the saying Pica cum luscinia certat, "The magpie is having a contest with the nightingale." In a singing contest, the mapgie is sure to lose to the tuneful nightingale. So, just as the nightingale should not go try to pick a fight with an eagle, the magpie should not challenge the nightingale to a singing contest!

So, hoping that all you nightingales out there have managed to stay clear of the world's eagles today, here is the proverb read out loud:

2686. Ne ad pugnam vocet aquilam luscinia

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Nutrit et accipiter pullos suos

In English: Even a hawk nourishes its chicks.

This is a really fascinating little proverb which plays upon the fact that even though the hawk is a deadly predator, it nevertheless raises its own young with the tenderness that the chicks require. So, even though an animal - or a person - might have a strongly defined identity, you could still be surprised by the behavior of that animal in some other dimension of their life, such as in their loving attitude towards their own children.

This comes as a shock in the case of the hawk, of course, since it is notorious for preying on the chicks of other birds, as in the famous story of the hawk and the nightingale, where the hawk demands the the nightingale sing a pretty song in order to ransom her chicks. Here is the version in Steinhowel's Aesop (Perry 567) - you will see that the hawk does pay a price for his crime, with the lucky arrival of a hunter on the scene:

In nido lusciniae cum sederet accipiter, ut specularetur auras, parvos illic invenit pullos. Supervenit cito luscinia et rogavit parcere pullis suis. Faciam, quod vis, inquit, si bene mihi cantaveris. At illa, quamvis animus excederet, tanto metu coacta, pavens et dolore plena cantavit. Accipiter, qui praedam invenerat: Non bene cantasti, inquit. Et apprehendit unum de pullis ac devorare coepit. Tunc ex diverso quidam auceps venit et calamo silentio levato accipitrem visco contractum in terram deiecit.

When the hawk settled down into the nest of the nightingale in order to observe the winds, he found there the chicks of the nightingale. The nightingale arrived on the scene quickly and asked the hawk to spare her chicks. I will do what you want, said the hawk, if you can sing me a pretty song. But the nightingale, even though she tried with all her might, was so stricken by fear that she sang a fearful song, full of grief. The hawk, who had seized his prey, said: You did not sing very nicely! And he grabbed one of the chicks and began to gobble it up. Then from the opposite direction a certain bird-catcher came and having lifted up his reed stealthily he knocked the hawk to the ground, trapped by the bird lime.

Of course, as today's proverb points out, the hawk might act without pity towards the young of other birds, but it nevertheless cherishes its own chicks. It's all in that adverbial et - the hawk too, just like other birds, nourishes its young.

So, hoping that all you nightingales out there have managed to steer clear of the hawks today, here is today's proverb read out loud - reminding you that no matter how much you might fear those hawks, they have children to raise at home, too:

2087. Nutrit et accipiter pullos suos

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Ex granis acervus

In English: From grains, a heap.

I was so surprised to realize that I had never posted about this proverb here at the blog, since it has to be one of my "top ten" favorite Latin proverbs of all time, one that I constantly apply to my own life. In fact, blogging itself is a wonderful example of the "ex granis acervus" principle, since by posting just a little bit every day, you eventually end up with a big pile of writings, something that would have been intimidating if you set out to write that much, but which is so easy when you write it post by post by post.

Another thing I really like about this proverb is its abbreviated form, not even needing a verb. A fuller form of the proverb spells things out more clearly: de multis granis acervus erit, "from many grains, there will be a heap" or de minimis grandis fit magnus acervus, "from the smallest grains comes a big heap," where the contrast between the tiny grains and the big heap is made explicit. So, if you are worried that your audience might not understand the abbreviated form of the proverb, you can fill in the gaps for them - but personally, I prefer the elegant little ex granis acervus form of the saying.

There are other metaphors, too, which convey the same ideas the tiny grains and the big heap that results. For example, you can think about the many little drops of rain that make a rain shower: Minutae guttulae imbrem pariunt, "Tiny droplets generate the rainshower." That saying makes nice use of the possibilities of the diminutive in Latin, with droplets, guttulae, in place of the standard form guttae, drops. I like diminutives so much that I'd be tempted to go even farther: Minutulae guttulae imbrem pariunt - with not just "tiny" droplets, but "teeny-tiny" ones.

Meanwhile, hoping that your harvest is piled up in plentiful heaps, here is today's proverb read out loud:

97. Ex granis acervus

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Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam

In English: Worry follows growing wealth.

This is one of many Latin proverbs that warn about the cares and worries that come with wealth. In this case, the proverb features a very nice use of the Latin participle crescens, growing. As wealth grows, so do the worries that accompany it. The phrase itself comes from Horace, in his Ode 3.16, "Worry follows growing weath, as does a hunger for greater things"

Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam
maiorumque fames.

The participle crescens has also given rise to the English word "crescent," although we tend to think of "crescent" as being a static shape, rather than something actively "increasing" (this word also comes from the same Latin root, in-creasing). The word "crescendo" also comes from this same root (via Italian); and with "crescendo," you definitely get a sense of actively increasing and swelling, which we not longer sense in the word "crescent."

The shape of the "crescent" is that of the moon, of course, which is constantly in motion and not static at all, as it waxes and grows larger, passing through the shape of the crescent until it is a full moon. Then, as it wanes and grows smaller, it passes through the crescent stage again, but this time it is de-creasing rather than in-creasing. We should probably call them the "increscent" moon and the "decrescent" moon just to acknowledge the dynamic difference! After all, you can tel just from looking at the crescent if the moon is increasing or decreasing. The horns of the waxing moon as it grows to full point to your left side, while those of the waning moon as it decreases point to your right - really! (Although it's just the opposite in the southern hemisphere, so if you are reading this in Australia, reverse those directions). If you don't believe me, take a walk outside for the next few nights and see what you can discover - or you can view this nifty animation at Wikipedia (larger view).

The moon is a good metaphor to keep in mind for the ups and downs of worldly wealth, too. Money comes, and money goes, just as the moon waxes and wanes. In fact, Horace's warning about "crescent" money and its worries could apply just as well to money when it is increasing as well as to money when it is decreasing. In many ways, it would be so much easier if money would just stay the same... but that's hardly the nature of the economy. It never stands still.

So, hoping that any money woes you are suffering might be those of increasing wealth rather than its opposite, here is today's proverb read out loud:

3692. Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam

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Mons parturibat, deinde murem prodidit

In English: The mountain was giving birth; it finally brought forth a mouse.

The proverb of "the mountain giving birth to a mouse" is well-attested in ancient Roman sources, being found in both Horace (parturiunt montes; nascetur ridiculus mus, in Ars Poetica) and in Phaedrus. The story is a simple one: the mountain rumbles and groans, as if it is going to give birth, and all that scurries out is a tiny little mouse. The metaphorical application is clear: the proverb fits those who make all kinds of furious and loud blustering declarations, and then end up not producing anything worthwhile at all.

Here is the version as told by Phaedrus (For parallel versions, see Perry 520).

Mons parturibat, gemitus immanes ciens,
eratque in terris maxima expectatio.
At ille murem peperit. Hoc scriptum est tibi,
qui, magna cum minaris, extricas nihil.

Here is the poem in a more prose-like word order for easy reading:

Mons parturibat,
ciens immanes gemitus,
et in terris erat maxima expectatio.
At ille mons
peperit murem.
Hoc scriptum est tibi,
qui
extricas nihil,
cum minaris magna.

For an English version, here is Christopher Smart's delightful rendering of Phaedrus:

The Mountain labor'd, groaning loud,
On which a num'rous gaping crowd
Of noodles came to see the sight,
When, lo ! a mouse was brought to light!
This tale 's for men of swagg'ring cast,
Whose threats, voluminous and vast,
With all their verse and all their prose,
Can make but little on 't, God knows.

So hoping you are not having to deal with any "men of swagg'ring cast" today - or any "noodles," for that matter! - here is today's proverb read out loud:

3332. Mons parturibat, deinde murem prodidit

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The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.

Invidus a propria roditur invidia

In English: The envious man is gnawed by his own envy.

There are many sayings in Latin about how envious people are their own worst enemies, as in this saying, where the envious man is being "gnawed" (Latin roditur, as in the word "rodent," the creature who gnaws) by his own feelings of envy. The envious man is unhappy precisely because of the happiness that he sees the others around him enjoying, as in this Latin definition of envy: Invidia dolor animi est ex alienis commodis, "Envy is a sickness of the soul which comes from other people's rewards."

There is an Aesop's fable about the perversity of the envious man which tells what happened when the gods granted the wishes of both an envious man and a greedy man, how they used their wishes to their own destruction. Here is the story as told by Joseph Jacobs:

Two neighbours came before Jupiter and prayed him to grant their hearts' desire. Now the one was full of avarice, and the other eaten up with envy. So to punish them both, Jupiter granted that each might have whatever he wished for himself, but only on condition that his neighbour had twice as much. The Avaricious man prayed to have a room full of gold. No sooner said than done; but all his joy was turned to grief when he found that his neighbour had two rooms full of the precious metal. Then came the turn of the Envious man, who could not bear to think that his neighbour had any joy at all. So he prayed that he might have one of his own eyes put out, by which means his companion would become totally blind.

Although this is one of the fables that is included in Barlow's Aesop (you can see the wonderful illustration online), I decided not to include it in the book, since this is definitely a rather twisted and weird fable - very wise, but painful to imagine! The pairing of the Greedy Man and the Envious Man is quite appropriate, of course, since they are two sides of the same coin, and here - instead of winning a boon from the gods - they both suffer a fearful punishment!

So, hoping you are feeling generous today and untouched by envy, here are today's proverbs read out loud:

3022. Invidus a propria roditur invidia

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372. Invidia dolor animi est ex alienis commodis

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The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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For more Latin proverbs, fables and commentary, visit the Bestiaria Latina blog, or you can sign up to receive the latest posts by email.

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Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.